TransAm Day #61 Bend, OR - Scott Lake, OR
TransAm Day #61
July 27, 2018
Bend, OR - Scott Lake, OR
54 Miles
Ride Time 4:44 Hours
Tour Total Miles 4262
Yesterday afternoon, after downing a thousand ice teas, I headed over to the Bend Brewery, where I sampled their Outback Amber Ale and an order of nachos. Scott, Eileen, and Klaus showed up for some more sampling. It was getting late and we still didn’t have a place to stay. There weren’t any campgrounds in Bend, and we couldn’t find a Warm Showers host that would take four people.
Just then, a woman named Lauren came over to our table and asked if we needed a place to stay. The trail magic was with us two nights in a row. Before going to Lauren’s, we went to Pho Viet & Cafe for my first Vietnamese food and shrimp since New York. Bend is a great town, and I can see what all the hype is about.
After dinner we rode over to Lauren’s place. It was a full moon and we camped in her back yard. I pitched my tent three feet from the edge of the Deschutes River. I was able to shower, wash my clothes, and charge my phone. Once again, I slept without my tent fly, and it got cold in the middle of the night. The moon never rose to a part of the sky where it woke me.
This morning I met Lauren’s husband Jesse. They are both athletes, and Jesse cycles the McKenzie pass regularly. Lauren and Jesse have a business called Picky Bars, and sell their energy products to REI and Whole Foods. Jesse plotted out a route from Bend to Sisters that avoided busy US Highway 20.
Before leaving town we went to the Lemon Bar for breakfast, where I had a crab eggs Benedict. Klaus needed a sleeping bag, so he and Eileen went shopping while Scott and I rode ahead to Sisters. Klaus works for the Port Authority of Virginia and, like Eileen, he is a burner, a term people use to identify one's kinship with Burning Man culture.
In Sisters, Scott and I stopped at the Sno Cap, where I got myself a root beer float. We waited for what seemed an eternity. I ran into Leo and Max, the nutty man with the dog on the back of his bike, whom I had seen four days ago in John Day. My Instagram post of him got more likes than any other tour photo. I filled my rear pannier with cold beer and ice for us to enjoy up on the pass. The busy intersection in town was a challenge to cross, and someone had handmade bright traffic crossing flags. Eileen and Klaus finally arrived, and we headed out of town towards the McKenzie Pass.
The ride started through a pine forest, and I could hear an active shooting range in the distance. Further up the mountain there was evidence of a massive forest fire, perhaps the one I read about in May when the pass had to be closed. Nearing the summit at Windy Point I saw the remains of a huge lava flow. Jesse had said that the McKenzie Pass looked like the landscape on the moon, and I couldn’t agree more. There were endless piles of black rocks.
Towards the summit I passed two eastbound tandem teams, both pulling trailer bobs. I regret not being fast enough with my camera. I passed the Cycling for Libraries team whom I had met at Bruce’s house in Missoula. At the summit I visited the Dee Wright Observatory. Built from volcanic rock, it rises up from the rock piles. From the top are incredible views of the three snowcapped Sister peaks, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington and numerous others.
Scott and I waited for an hour for Klaus and Eileen to catch up. It was Klaus’s first day cycling, and after his first pass he had nothing but respect for our 4,000 miles across the continent. We met #Kahl4Prez who is running for president in 2020. He left several stamped one dollar bills strapped to our bikes. The four of us sat on top of the observatory drinking beer and eating pretzels while the sun went down.
The campground at Scott Lake was full, so we rode deeper into woods on the gravel road, until it came to an end. We met a nice family who offered us water and the rest of their hobo pie. We camped nearby and bathed in the lake. The Blood moon was glowing above with planet Mars alongside, and I was treated to a dramatic viewing against the three Sisters peaks.
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